A D2D communication network is typically used for short-range communication between D2D communication devices, such as terminals, laptops or the like, in order to provide communication within the proximity of each D2D communication device. Thereby, services such as commercial services or location-based social services, can be provided with the D2D communication devices of the D2D communication network in a cost-effective way. Such a D2D communication network represents typically an ad-hoc network forming itself by neighbouring D2D communication devices which may join together to a D2D communication network. The ad-hoc network may also change over time because of the mobility of one or more D2D communication devices. A topology of the D2D communication network may correspond, for example, to a cluster comprising a cluster master or cluster head and one or more cluster slaves. The cluster master may provide, for the cluster, among others, functionalities such as synchronization of itself and the cluster slaves with respect to a synchronization source, radio resource management within the D2D communication network and controlling the creation of connection links between the D2D communication devices. Cluster slaves can provide, for example, a coverage extension of the D2D communication network and may operate in accordance with control instructions of the cluster master. The D2D communication network can be a stand-alone network or can be interconnected with a cellular communication network, for example a radio access network. In the latter option, the cluster master can be embodied as an access node of the cellular communication network. For example, Long Term Evolution (LTE) may represent a typical example of a radio access technology in a radio access network interconnected with a D2D communication network with an associated LTE access node, an eNodeB, performing link setup between the D2D communication devices of a D2D communication network and allocating resources for the connection link. A D2D communication network may also offer access to cellular communication networks for example via the cluster master or a further D2D communication device which is connectable to the cellular communication network.
In security relevant scenarios in which an availability of the cellular communication network may break down or may be not available for other reasons and communication over larger distances may still be needed, multi-hop connections between D2D communication devices via one or more intermediate D2D communication devices may be desired.